The Trump administration plans to open a temporary holding facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children on a former Air Force base in Louisiana. But officials say it’s not a detention center.
The 528-bed facility, next to an airport hub in Alexandria, Louisiana, at what formerly was England Air Force Base, will hold unaccompanied children, families and adult women for up to 72 hours before they are deported.
The facility is a departure from current policy, which requires unaccompanied minors to be housed in foster care or with a relative in the U.S. According to The Associated Press, the official contractor is the nonprofit arm of the private-prison company LaSalle Corrections. The company will also be involved in operating the facility and ensuring compliance.
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Details on the new facility
The facility is intended to remove issues that surround transporting children from foster homes and facilities to airports before a deportation flight.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is calling it a “staging area” rather than a detention center, saying individuals will be there only a few days at most.
Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority, told the AP the facility could be up and running by next month.
Who is operating the facility?
Current law requires that children in the U.S. without parents or close relatives be placed in the care of state-licensed shelters and foster care programs.
Typically, the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services runs those facilities. However, the office has not been involved in the new Louisiana facility.
Hennessy told the AP that LaSalle Corrections’ nonprofit arm, the LaSalle Family Foundation, would be the official contractor.
Straight Arrow was unable to reach either the foundation or the company. A listed telephone number has been disconnected.
The nonprofit provides chaplain services and educational programming within correctional facilities, according to its tax filings.
Despite the nonprofit being listed as the contractor, LaSalle Corrections will be involved in operations, officials with the company told AP.
Issues at another LaSalle facility
LaSalle operates numerous other immigration facilities, including the “Louisiana Lockup” inside the state’s maximum-security prison.
It also operates the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, an adult male immigration detention facility that faced scrutiny from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general last month.
In an unannounced visit, inspectors found numerous areas of noncompliance at the facility. A final report notes that portions of the intake building’s ceiling had holes, with insulation hanging from the tiles. It also said food at the facility was not being stored at proper temperatures.
The inspector also found that facility staff used prohibited use-of-force techniques in several instances, including putting a detainee in a chokehold, failing to document a medical review and its findings on camera, and puncturing a detainee’s skin with a pen.
The inspector general made nine recommendations to ICE and the facility, and as of June, five of the nine remain open, while four have been closed.
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